It is often advantageous, in those motor vehicles in which children are passengers, to transport a stroller in the vehicle for use at the destination. In an attempt to combine functions, various designs have been proposed for strollers that convert into infant restraint seats. Such designs are cumbersome, complex and expensive to manufacture, and most include hard, three-dimensional seats. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,951 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,064 show convertible child car seat/strollers having molded plastic seats. Because such conventional designs employ hard, three-dimensional seats, they are not easily stored when not in use.
Furthermore, strollers are often equipped with pouches or packs on or near the rear of the stroller and into which the child's attendant can stow miscellaneous articles. A particular problem with this arrangement, however, is that when the pouch is heavily weighted, and the child is not in the stroller, the center of gravity shifts close to or even outside of the axis of the rear wheels. This condition is at least precarious, and may be unstable.